J. Lukas Thürmer, Maik Bieleke, Frank Wieber and Peter M. Gollwitzer
This study aims to take a dual-process perspective and argues that peer influence on increasing impulse buying may also operate automatically. If-then plans, which can automate…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to take a dual-process perspective and argues that peer influence on increasing impulse buying may also operate automatically. If-then plans, which can automate action control, may, thus, help regulate peer influence. This research extends existing literature explicating the deliberate influence of social norms.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 (N = 120) obtained causal evidence that forming an implementation intention (i.e. an if-then plan designed to automate action control) reduces peer impact on impulse buying in a laboratory experiment with young adults (students) selecting food items. Study 2 (N = 686) obtained correlational evidence for the role of norms, automaticity and implementation intentions in impulse buying using a large sample of high-school adolescents working on a vignette about clothes-shopping.
Findings
If-then plans reduced impulse purchases in the laboratory (Study 1). Both reported deliberation on peer norms and the reported automaticity of shopping with peers predicted impulse buying but an implementation intention to be thriftily reduced these links (Study 2).
Research limitations/implications
This research highlights the role of automatic social processes in problematic consumer behaviour. Promising field studies and neuropsychological experiments are discussed.
Practical implications
Young consumers can gain control over automatic peer influence by using if-then plans, thereby reducing impulse buying.
Originality/value
This research helps understand new precursors of impulse buying in understudied European samples of young consumers.
Details
Keywords
J. Lukas Thürmer, Frank Wieber and Peter M. Gollwitzer
Crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic pose extraordinary challenges to the decision making in management teams. Teams need to integrate available information quickly to make…
Abstract
Purpose
Crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic pose extraordinary challenges to the decision making in management teams. Teams need to integrate available information quickly to make informed decisions on the spot and update their decisions as new information becomes available. Moreover, making good decisions is hard as it requires sacrifices for the common good, and finally, implementing the decisions made is not easy as it requires persistence in the face of strong counterproductive social pressures.
Design/methodology/approach
We provide a “psychology of action” perspective on making team-based management decisions in crisis by introducing collective implementation intentions (We-if-then plans) as a theory-based intervention tool to improve decision processes. We discuss our program of research on forming and acting on We-if-then plans in ad hoc teams facing challenging situations.
Findings
Teams with We-if-then plans consistently made more informed decisions when information was socially or temporally distributed, when decision makers had to make sacrifices for the common good, and when strong social pressures opposed acting on their decisions. Preliminary experimental evidence indicates that assigning simple We-if-then plans had similar positive effects as providing a leader to steer team processes.
Originality/value
Our analysis of self-regulated team decisions helps understand and improve how management teams can make and act on good decisions in crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, in the context of making a go/no-go decision regarding a failing new product, the use of a stopping rule and/or a new…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, in the context of making a go/no-go decision regarding a failing new product, the use of a stopping rule and/or a new decision-maker would reduce the escalation of commitment (EOC).
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a classroom experiment design and uses logistic regression and a chi-square test to analyze its data.
Findings
The findings show that both responsible and non-responsible participants are more likely to perceive the negative performance of a new product as less negative and believe that the goal for the product can be reached when there is a stopping rule and proximal negative feedback indicates a level of performance below but very close to it than when there is no stopping rule. Therefore, they are more likely to continue the failing new product, whether they are responsible for the product or not. However, non-responsible decision-makers are more likely than their responsible counterparts to discontinue the failing new product in the absence of a stopping rule.
Research limitations/implications
This paper extends the theory of EOC by showing that the use of a stopping rule and/or a new decision-maker may not reduce EOC.
Practical implications
This paper provides useful guidelines for managers on how to reduce EOC.
Originality/value
The originality and value of this paper are found in the investigation of a situation in which the use of a stopping rule and/or a new decision-maker may not reduce the EOC.